Category: The Forum

GEORGIA PUBLIC POLICY FOUNDATION EVENT
March 31, 2014
Contact Benita Dodd at 404-256-4050 or benitadodd@georgiapolicy.orgFoundation’s April 24 Event: ‘School Choice: Big Gains in The Big Easy’Atlanta – What does leadership in school choice look like? New Orleans, La.
What does leadership in school choice sound like? Matt Candler, chairman of the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools and CEO of 4.0 Schools.
Candler, an Atlanta native, is the keynote speaker at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation’s 8 a.m. Leadership Breakfast on Thursday, April 24, 2014, at Cobb County’s Georgian Club. Join Candler as he describes his team’s role in the disruption and transformation of education in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, leading to the most innovative and aggressive…
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By Benita M. Dodd
March was eventful at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation. More than 200 supporters attended the Annual Reception and Dinner to celebrate 23 years of promoting free markets, limited government and individual responsibility in Georgia. If you were a liberal looking for fault, you could have a field day alleging “right-wing tokenism” on this red-letter day for the Foundation.
What does that mean? Several years ago, a local resident newsperson and his guest made a visit to the Foundation offices to seek advice on how to start a think tank – a liberal think tank. The staff assembled and gave advice freely, believing Georgia has room for all viewpoints and may common sense win. In fact, liberal…
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It’s Friday!EventsApril 24: Matt Candler, founder and CEO of 404 Schools, keynotes, “School Choice: Big Gains in The Big Easy,” the Foundation’s Leadership Breakfast at 8 a.m. at Cobb County’s Georgian Club. This event is open to the public and is $25 to attend. Register at http://bit.ly/1lmETV5.
Quotes of Note
“The fact that only a small percentage of medical errors are dealt with in the malpractice system suggests that it’s not a system. It deals in an incredibly inefficient way with a small percentage of the actual errors and in such a way that it does not make the performance of the overall system better. It’s not addressing why the error was made in…
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Good enough on some levels but not good enough across-the-board.
That was their analysis of the 2014 General Assembly from Eric Cochling and Kyle Wingfield at our sold-out policy breakfast on Wednesday, March 26. Cochling is vice president of public policy at the Georgia Center for Opportunity and Wingfield is the conservative voice on The Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial pages.
“You saw a lot of excitement about certain ideas whether it was welfare reform or new school choice concepts coming through that made it through a chamber with vast majorities voting in favor of it but then it goes on to die in the other chamber,” Cochling said. “I would characterize the session as some positive things happened but many missed…
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The rich may be getting richer, but the poor are definitely not getting poorer. In fact, most Americans got richer over the last 35 years. President Obama likes to stress that income inequality has increased in the United States, but it is hardly “the defining challenge of our time,” as he has called it, says Ronald Bailey, a science correspondent for Reason Magazine.
Brookings Institution economist Gary Burtless used data from a December 2013 Congressional Budget Office (CBO) study to show that from 1979 to 2010 (this was the last year with available data) the bottom quintile’s after-tax income in constant dollars rose by 49 percent. For the second lowest, middle and fourth quintile, those incomes increased by a respective…
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New data demonstrates that there is no link between state education spending and student outcomes, says Andrew Coulson, director of the Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom.
Comparing academic performance with state spending is an incredibly valuable way to measure the efficacy of education policies. Looking at academic performance on a national scale, the results are not good. Seventeen year olds’ performance has been stagnant since 1970 across all subjects, despite K-12 education costs tripling.
Unfortunately, similar data at the state level has been very difficult to come by. Spending data exists for the last 50 years, but it is scattered across various publications. Academic data, on the other hand, is even more difficult to find, as it is either…
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Health Care Policy News and Views
Compiled by Benita M. Dodd
Yesterday, an e-mail from the White House turned up in my mailbox. From President Obama, no less. The salutation was, “Hey – ”
(As an aside, I’m a bit of a fuddy-duddy when it comes to how I’m addressed. “Hey” isn’t a favorite. I blame my mother – or, as she used to say, “Hay is for horses.” I left my first doctor when I immigrated to the United States back in the horse-and-carriage days because he called me “Honey.” I figure I paid him enough to remember my name. … )
It was an urgent reminder about the “Affordable” Care Act, AKA ObamaCare. The President pointed out that,…
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By Mike Klein
Sunny Park knew what he wanted when he arrived from South Korea. “I came to the United States in 1974 to achieve my dream. My dream was and is clean more toilets. Americans eat a lot, they use the bathroom a lot and my business continues to grow.” Park earned $1.80 per hour in his first job, cleaning toilets.
Today his Atlanta-based General Building Maintenance firm cleans three million toilets and 470 million square feet of commercial space every night. Park pays more than $1 million in annual federal income tax.“This is a paradise,” he says.“I am Achiever of American Dream.”
Park no longer worries about money. He does worry whether America is going soft.
“Too many…
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The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice has produced several papers on Education Savings Accounts:
What are ESAs and how do they work?Click here to read “The Way of the Future: Education Savings Accounts for Every American Family.”
How do parents use ESAs?Click here to read “The Education Debit Card: What Arizona Parents Purchase with Education Savings Accounts.”
Are families happy with ESAs?Click here to read “Schooling Satisfaction: Arizona Parents’ Opinions on Using Education Savings Accounts.”
…
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It’s so often a lack of information that keeps us from getting involved. The Foundation is doing for the public what many could not do for themselves. Anytime that we’re given the truth, people can make good decisions.

Deen Day Smith, Chairman of the Board, Cecil B. Day Investment Company
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